Blue Nessie is a relatively new and fancy-looking USB mic with just about decent sound quality. It has some interesting features like switchable recording modes and a touch sensor mute button. Going in, we expected this miniature USB microphone to perform well below the likes of the Apogee MiC -- a competitor that costs more than twice as much with a longer list of specs. In my travels and reviews, I’ve always found USB mics to be incredibly convenient, if not really all that great sounding. Since these mics are often used by novices making their first forays into pro audio, they have to possess a very user-friendly feature set and still capture worthy audio across a pretty wide set of circumstances. Beyerdynamic seems to have carefully straddled that elusive line between consumer convenience and pro performance with its FOX portable USB microphone. The FOX is a large-diaphragm, pressure gradient condenser mic using the new(ish) USB-C connection and recording up to 96 kHz with 24-bits. FOX connects directly to your recording device digitally with plug-and-play convenience, as in no drivers required (iOS, Mac or Windows). Acting as a DAW “interface,” one monitors the recording via FOX’s built-in headphone amp, 1/8” mini-plug headphone jack, and volume control; selecting DAW playback, direct zero-latency monitoring from the mic or a continuously variable blend of the two. A backlit Mute button (a “cough button” for live broadcasters) flashes when the mic is muted. Windows xp live cd iso image free download. I hooked the FOX up to my Macboook Pro with the supplied 3’ USB cable and noticed what a nice woven-braid cable it was and found USB-C to be convenient with its “no wrong way” connection. I selected FOX for system input and output, and once in my session (with MOTU’s Digital Performer 9.52), I was able to record at 96 kHz with 64 sample latency, as 32 samples wasn’t achievable without dropouts and freezes. Vw t5 transporter for sale. In order to not have to fiddle with the mic’s controls too much, I monitored a 50/50 blend between DAW playback and live sound directly off the mic, with the DAW set to not pass input signal through, only playback. I set-up in my living room just like a singer/songwriter (with my Taylor acoustic) or a podcaster might, with the FOX set for high-gain. At about 1.5 feet out, the sound was a little roomy and with just enough level; at six inches away, some moderate proximity effect kicked in for a fuller sound and decent levels. At three inches out, my headphones started to noticeably distort (although the signal recorded to DAW was actually ok) and when right up at the pop filter the cans were blown out but the recorded signal was actually ok. Plosives began to be an issue when closer than six inches out, but the mic took level surprisingly well, capturing my loud singing and yells without distortion up until about six inches out. A little tasteful DSP seemed to be taming dynamics, the tonal balance was reasonably flat and a nice blend was found between guitar and voice. I was able to go straight into some overdubs of voice, guitar and percussion with this set-up very easily, with only adjustments to mic gain and the DAW/mic headphone balance. I found the tilt mechanism to be nice and snug, too; once in place, the mic stayed in place. The plastic foot/tilt is easily removable and the large flathead screw is made to be removable with a coin as a screwdriver. The hi/lo gain switch is easy to flip as it’s the only control on the mic’s rear, so I flipped it and found the mic to handle loud levels better than expected, with only 97.5 dB of SPL handling. My yells were now translated cleanly right up until I was nearly touching the pop filter and even then, they only barely distorted. Despite what had to be some serious DSP level containment, the sound actually held together well. I was hoping that FOX could handle band practice SPL, but I’m afraid that didn’t work out; placed in the center of the room, three feet off the floor on a small table, my recording of just drum kit was slightly squared-off and clipped and it only got worse with bass, guitar, vocals and so on. Fit and finish were excellent on the whole package (the mic itself feels heavy for its small size, and sturdy), even though I have some durability qualms that can’t be answered just yet. That plastic desktop stand is stable enough, but it seems like it might not hold up to backpack-abuse and doesn’t do much to prevent bumps and thumps. Likewise, the pop filter works pretty well, stopping plosives up until about four or five inches out, but it is also thin and seems like its snap-on clip might snap off; only time will tell.
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